Influence of the intentional voice quality on the impression of female speaker

Abstract

This study examines the relationship of voice quality and speech-based personality assessment of Finnish-speaking female speakers. Five Finnish-speaking female subjects recorded a text passage with eight different vocal qualities. Samples that passed the preselection test for the voice qualities were played to 50 Finnish-speaking listeners, who reported speaker impressions on a scale of 18 opposite trait pairs. Voices produced with forward placement received assessments of femininity and friendliness. Readers speaking with backward placement were considered less feminine, while breathy voice evoked assessments of emotionality and implausibility. Tense phonation as well as creakiness, nasality, and denasality gave rise to numerous negative notions. The results suggest that voice stereotypes have both internationality and cultural dependency.

Key words::

• Backward placement
• breathy voice
• creaky voice
• denasality
• female voice
• forward placement
• nasal voice
• personality assessment
• tense phonation
• voice quality

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.